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Ranked: Per Capita Carbon Emissions by Country
Want to see total CO₂ emissions by country? Click here to see our graphic.
Ranked: Per Capita Carbon Emissions by Country
The world’s biggest carbon emitters are dominated by the biggest economies, but what happens when we account for population?
Using information gathered by Our World in Data, we chart out the top 15 countries with the highest per capita carbon emissions (measured in tonnes of CO₂) in 2021.
Which Country Has the Highest Per Capita Carbon Emissions?
Qatar, ranked first, produced nearly 36 tonnes of CO₂ per resident in the country in 2021, well ahead of its peers in the top ranks.
Here’s the full list of per capita emissions by country, ranked from highest to lowest.
Rank | Country/Territory | CO₂ per capita (t) |
---|---|---|
1 | 🇶🇦 Qatar | 35.6 |
2 | 🇧🇭 Bahrain | 26.7 |
3 | 🇰🇼 Kuwait | 25.0 |
4 | 🇹🇹 Trinidad & Tobago | 23.7 |
5 | 🇧🇳 Brunei | 23.5 |
6 | 🇦🇪 UAE | 21.8 |
7 | 🇳🇨 New Caledonia | 19.1 |
8 | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | 18.7 |
9 | 🇴🇲 Oman | 17.9 |
10 | 🇦🇺 Australia | 15.1 |
11 | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | 15.0 |
12 | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 14.9 |
13 | 🇸🇽 Sint Maarten (Dutch part) | 14.7 |
14 | 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan | 14.4 |
15 | 🇨🇦 Canada | 14.3 |
16 | 🇵🇼 Palau | 13.2 |
17 | 🇫🇴 Faroe Islands | 13.2 |
18 | 🇹🇲 Turkmenistan | 13.1 |
19 | 🇱🇺 Luxembourg | 13.1 |
20 | 🇷🇺 Russia | 12.1 |
21 | 🇰🇷 South Korea | 11.9 |
22 | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | 11.9 |
23 | 🇱🇾 Libya | 11.1 |
24 | 🇵🇲 Saint Pierre & Miquelon | 10.5 |
25 | 🇨🇼 Curacao | 9.7 |
26 | 🇨🇿 Czechia | 9.2 |
27 | 🇦🇮 Anguilla | 9.2 |
28 | 🇮🇸 Iceland | 9.1 |
29 | 🇬🇱 Greenland | 9.1 |
30 | 🇵🇱 Poland | 8.6 |
31 | 🇯🇵 Japan | 8.6 |
32 | 🇧🇲 Bermuda | 8.5 |
33 | 🇮🇷 Iran | 8.5 |
34 | 🇧🇪 Belgium | 8.2 |
35 | 🇩🇪 Germany | 8.1 |
36 | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 8.1 |
37 | 🇦🇼 Aruba | 8.1 |
38 | 🇨🇳 China | 8.0 |
39 | 🇪🇪 Estonia | 7.9 |
40 | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | 7.6 |
41 | 🇳🇴 Norway | 7.6 |
42 | 🇹🇨 Turks & Caicos Islands | 7.6 |
43 | 🇮🇪 Ireland | 7.5 |
44 | 🇿🇦 South Africa | 7.3 |
45 | 🇦🇹 Austria | 7.2 |
46 | 🇫🇮 Finland | 6.8 |
47 | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | 6.6 |
48 | 🇸🇰 Slovakia | 6.5 |
49 | 🇧🇾 Belarus | 6.2 |
50 | 🇧🇬 Bulgaria | 6.2 |
51 | 🇮🇱 Israel | 6.1 |
52 | 🇨🇾 Cyprus | 6.1 |
53 | 🇳🇺 Niue | 6.1 |
54 | 🇸🇮 Slovenia | 5.9 |
55 | 🇧🇸 Bahamas | 5.9 |
56 | 🇬🇵 Guadeloupe | 5.8 |
57 | 🇦🇩 Andorra | 5.7 |
58 | 🇲🇶 Martinique | 5.7 |
59 | 🇮🇹 Italy | 5.5 |
60 | 🇸🇬 Singapore | 5.5 |
61 | 🇬🇷 Greece | 5.4 |
62 | 🇨🇰 Cook Islands | 5.4 |
63 | 🇸🇨 Seychelles | 5.3 |
64 | 🇹🇷 Turkey | 5.3 |
65 | 🇬🇧 UK | 5.2 |
66 | 🇻🇬 British Virgin Islands | 5.1 |
67 | 🇩🇰 Denmark | 5.1 |
68 | 🇦🇬 Antigua & Barbuda | 5.0 |
69 | 🇰🇳 Saint Kitts & Nevis | 5.0 |
70 | 🇭🇺 Hungary | 5.0 |
71 | 🇱🇹 Lithuania | 5.0 |
72 | 🇪🇸 Spain | 4.9 |
73 | 🇳🇷 Nauru | 4.8 |
74 | 🇫🇷 France | 4.7 |
75 | 🇲🇸 Martinique | 4.7 |
76 | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | 4.6 |
77 | 🇸🇷 Suriname | 4.6 |
78 | 🇱🇧 Lebanon | 4.5 |
79 | 🇨🇱 Chile | 4.4 |
80 | 🇭🇷 Croatia | 4.4 |
81 | 🇮🇶 Iraq | 4.3 |
82 | 🇷🇪 Reunion | 4.2 |
83 | 🇷🇸 Serbia | 4.2 |
84 | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong | 4.2 |
85 | 🇧🇦 Bosnia & Herzegovina | 4.1 |
86 | 🇦🇷 Argentina | 4.1 |
87 | 🇷🇴 Romania | 4.1 |
88 | 🇲🇻 Maldives | 4.1 |
89 | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 4.0 |
90 | 🇧🇧 Barbados | 4.0 |
91 | 🇩🇿 Algeria | 4.0 |
92 | 🇵🇹 Portugal | 4.0 |
93 | 🇹🇭 Thailand | 3.9 |
94 | 🇱🇻 Latvia | 3.9 |
95 | 🇧🇶 Bonaire Sint Eustatius and Saba | 3.9 |
96 | 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein | 3.9 |
97 | 🇬🇾 Guyana | 3.8 |
98 | 🇲🇭 Marshall Islands | 3.8 |
99 | 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan | 3.7 |
100 | 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan | 3.6 |
101 | 🇲🇺 Mauritius | 3.4 |
102 | 🇸🇪 Sweden | 3.4 |
103 | 🇽🇰 Kosovo | 3.4 |
104 | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | 3.3 |
105 | 🇲🇹 Malta | 3.3 |
106 | 🇲🇰 North Macedonia | 3.3 |
107 | 🇲🇽 Mexico | 3.2 |
108 | 🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea | 3.2 |
109 | 🇵🇫 French Polynesia | 3.1 |
110 | 🇵🇦 Panama | 3.0 |
111 | 🇬🇪 Georgia | 2.9 |
112 | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | 2.8 |
113 | 🇱🇦 Laos | 2.8 |
114 | 🇲🇪 Montenegro | 2.8 |
115 | 🇯🇲 Jamaica | 2.7 |
116 | 🇱🇨 Saint Lucia | 2.7 |
117 | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | 2.6 |
118 | 🇹🇳 Tunisia | 2.6 |
119 | 🇬🇩 Grenada | 2.6 |
120 | 🇸🇭 Saint Helena | 2.5 |
121 | 🇧🇼 Botswana | 2.5 |
122 | 🇬🇦 Gabon | 2.4 |
123 | 🇦🇲 Armenia | 2.4 |
124 | 🇼🇫 Wallis & Futuna | 2.4 |
125 | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | 2.3 |
126 | 🇯🇴 Jordan | 2.3 |
127 | 🇪🇬 Egypt | 2.3 |
128 | 🇧🇷 Brazil | 2.3 |
129 | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | 2.3 |
130 | 🇬🇫 French Guiana | 2.2 |
131 | 🇩🇲 Dominica | 2.2 |
132 | 🇰🇵 North Korea | 2.2 |
133 | 🇻🇨 Saint Vincent & the Grenadines | 2.0 |
134 | 🇺🇾 Uruguay | 2.0 |
135 | 🇨🇺 Cuba | 2.0 |
136 | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | 2.0 |
137 | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | 1.9 |
138 | 🇮🇳 India | 1.9 |
139 | 🇲🇦 Morocco | 1.9 |
140 | 🇲🇴 Macao | 1.9 |
141 | 🇲🇩 Moldova | 1.8 |
142 | 🇨🇴 Colombia | 1.8 |
143 | 🇧🇿 Belize | 1.7 |
144 | 🇵🇪 Peru | 1.7 |
145 | 🇹🇴 Tonga | 1.6 |
146 | 🇦🇱 Albania | 1.6 |
147 | 🇫🇯 Fiji | 1.6 |
148 | 🇳🇦 Namibia | 1.6 |
149 | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | 1.5 |
150 | 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan | 1.4 |
151 | 🇫🇲 Micronesia | 1.4 |
152 | 🇼🇸 Samoa | 1.3 |
153 | 🇵🇾 Paraguay | 1.3 |
154 | 🇨🇬 Congo | 1.3 |
155 | 🇵🇭 Philippines | 1.3 |
156 | 🇸🇾 Syria | 1.3 |
157 | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | 1.2 |
158 | 🇰🇭 Cambodia | 1.1 |
159 | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | 1.1 |
160 | 🇨🇻 Cape Verde | 1.1 |
161 | 🇭🇳 Honduras | 1.1 |
162 | 🇹🇯 Tajikistan | 1.1 |
163 | 🇱🇸 Lesotho | 1.0 |
164 | 🇵🇰 Pakistan | 1.0 |
165 | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | 1.0 |
166 | 🇸🇿 Eswatini | 0.9 |
167 | 🇲🇷 Mauritania | 0.9 |
168 | 🇾🇹 Mayotte | 0.9 |
169 | 🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea | 0.9 |
170 | 🇸🇳 Senegal | 0.8 |
171 | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua | 0.7 |
172 | 🇹🇻 Tuvalu | 0.7 |
173 | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | 0.7 |
174 | 🇲🇲 Myanmar | 0.7 |
175 | 🇬🇭 Ghana | 0.6 |
176 | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | 0.6 |
177 | 🇦🇴 Angola | 0.6 |
178 | 🇵🇸 Palestine | 0.6 |
179 | 🇧🇯 Benin | 0.6 |
180 | 🇸🇹 Sao Tome & Principe | 0.6 |
181 | 🇹🇱 East Timor | 0.6 |
182 | 🇰🇮 Kiribati | 0.6 |
183 | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh | 0.6 |
184 | 🇻🇺 Vanuatu | 0.5 |
185 | 🇳🇵 Nepal | 0.5 |
186 | 🇸🇩 Sudan | 0.5 |
187 | 🇸🇧 Solomon Islands | 0.4 |
188 | 🇨🇮 Cote d'Ivoire | 0.4 |
189 | 🇿🇲 Zambia | 0.4 |
190 | 🇾🇪 Yemen | 0.4 |
191 | 🇰🇪 Kenya | 0.4 |
192 | 🇰🇲 Comoros | 0.4 |
193 | 🇬🇳 Guinea | 0.4 |
194 | 🇩🇯 Djibouti | 0.3 |
195 | 🇨🇲 Cameroon | 0.3 |
196 | 🇦🇫 Afghanistan | 0.3 |
197 | 🇹🇬 Togo | 0.3 |
198 | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | 0.3 |
199 | 🇭🇹 Haiti | 0.3 |
200 | 🇬🇲 Gambia | 0.2 |
201 | 🇱🇷 Liberia | 0.2 |
202 | 🇪🇷 Eritrea | 0.2 |
203 | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | 0.2 |
204 | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | 0.2 |
205 | 🇲🇱 Mali | 0.2 |
206 | 🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau | 0.2 |
207 | 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone | 0.2 |
208 | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | 0.1 |
209 | 🇸🇸 South Sudan | 0.1 |
210 | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | 0.1 |
211 | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | 0.1 |
212 | 🇺🇬 Uganda | 0.1 |
213 | 🇹🇩 Chad | 0.1 |
214 | 🇳🇪 Niger | 0.1 |
215 | 🇲🇼 Malawi | 0.1 |
216 | 🇧🇮 Burundi | 0.1 |
217 | 🇨🇫 Central African Republic | 0.0 |
218 | 🇸🇴 Somalia | 0.0 |
219 | 🇨🇩 DRC | 0.0 |
Bahrain (26.7 tonnes), and Kuwait (25 tonnes), rank second and third respectively. The top three together signal a running theme: countries whose economies rely on fossil fuel exports heavily feature in the top 10 per capita carbon emitters including: Brunei (5th), UAE (6th), Saudi Arabia (8th), and Oman (9th).
Meanwhile, island nations and territories like New Caledonia (7th), Sint Maarten (13th), and Palau (16th) are also highly represented. Their smaller populations’ still-significant energy needs—usually met from burning fossil fuels—increase their per capita emissions. Trinidad & Tobago (4th) has another factor that contributes, as the Caribbean’s largest natural gas producer and second-largest oil producer.
On the other hand, ranked 11th, Mongolia’s annual CO₂ emissions have grown nearly 600% since 2000, largely driven by its agriculture sector.
Per capita numbers are just one part of the picture. For example, Trinidad and Tobago contributed only 0.1% to global emissions in 2021. But they help illustrate that residents in higher income countries emit more than 30 times the emissions from those in lower income countries.
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How Carbon Credits Can Help Close the Climate Funding Gap
To keep a 1.5℃ world within reach, global emissions need to fall by as much as 45% by 2030, and carbon credits could help close the gap.
How Carbon Credits Can Help Close the Climate Funding Gap
Governments around the world have committed to the goals of the Paris Agreement, but their climate pledges are insufficient. To keep a 1.5℃ world within reach, global emissions need to fall by as much as 45% by 2030.
Bold and immediate action is essential, but so are resources that will make it happen.
In this graphic, we have partnered with Carbon Streaming to look at the role that the voluntary carbon market and carbon credits can play in closing that gap.
More Funds are Needed for Climate Finance
According to data from the Climate Policy Initiative, climate finance, which includes funds for both adaptation and mitigation, needs to increase at least five-fold, from $1.3T in 2021/2022, to an average $8.6T annually until 2030, and then to just over $10T in the two decades leading up to 2050.
That adds up to a very large number, but consider that in 2022, $7.0T went to fossil fuel subsidies, which almost covers the annual estimated outlay. And the world has shown that when pressed, governments can come up with the money, if the global pandemic is any indication.
Mobilizing Carbon Finance to the Developing World
But the same cannot be said of the developing world, where debt, inequality, and poverty reduce the ability of governments to act. And this is where carbon credits can play an important role. According to analyses from Ecosystem Marketplace, carbon credits help move capital from developed countries, to where funds are needed in the developing world.
For example, in 2019, 69.2% of the carbon credits by volume in the voluntary carbon market were purchased by buyers in Europe, and nearly a third from North America. Compare that to over 90% of the volume of carbon credits sold in the voluntary carbon market in 2022 came from projects that were located outside of those two regions.
Carbon Credits Can Complement Decarbonization Efforts
Carbon credits can also complement decarbonization efforts in the corporate world, where more and more companies have been signing up to reduce emissions. According to the 2022 monitoring report from the Science Based Targets initiative, 4,230 companies around the world had approved targets and commitments, which represented an 88% increase from the prior year. However, as of year end 2022, combined scope 1 and 2 emissions covered by science-based targets totaled approximately 2 GtCO2e, which represents just a fraction of global emissions.
The fine print is that this is just scope 1 and 2 emissions, and doesn’t include scope 3 emissions, which can account for more than 70% of a company’s total emissions. And as these emissions come under greater and greater scrutiny the closer we get to 2030 and beyond, the voluntary carbon credit market could expand exponentially to help meet the need to compensate for these emissions.
Potential Carbon Credit Market Size in 2030
OK, but how big? In 2022, the voluntary carbon credit market was around $2B, but some analysts predict that it could grow to between $5–250 billion by 2030.
Firm | Low Estimate | High Estimate |
---|---|---|
Bain & Company | $15B | $30B |
Barclays | N/A | $250B |
Citigroup | $5B | $50B |
McKinsey & Company | $5B | $50B |
Morgan Stanley | N/A | $100B |
Shell / Boston Consulting Group | $10B | $40B |
Morgan Stanley and Barclays were the most bullish on the size of the voluntary carbon credit market in 2030, but the latter firm was even more optimistic about 2050, and predicted that the voluntary carbon credit market could grow to a colossal $1.5 trillion.
Carbon Streaming is Focused on Carbon Credit Integrity
Ultimately, carbon credits could have an important role to play in marshaling the resources needed to keep the world on track to net zero by 2050, and avoiding the worst consequences of a warming world.
Carbon Streaming uses streaming transactions, a proven and flexible funding model, to scale high-integrity carbon credit projects to advance global climate action and UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Learn more at www.carbonstreaming.com.
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